U.K. vows to speed up asylum claims as hotel protests spread. The U.K. government vowed Sunday to overhaul its asylum system after weekend protests broke out across the country at hotels housing migrants.

The government said it will establish a new independent body to hear appeals by failed applicants more quickly as it attempts to end the costly use of asylum hotels, which have become the target of protests.

The protests began outside a hotel in Epping, southeast England, after one resident was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

The Labour government said on Friday it would appeal a court ruling blocking it from housing asylum seekers at the hotel.

The ruling triggered the announcement of protests and counter-protests outside hotels accommodating asylum seekers around the country.

A group gathered outside a Holiday Inn in Birmingham, central England, on Sunday, while police stood guard outside the Britannia Hotel in central London, the site of ongoing protests, as around 20 people demonstrated.

Other events were planned in Manchester, northwest England, and Dudley in the Midlands.

Protests under the “Abolish Asylum System” slogan were held on Saturday in cities and towns including Bristol, Exeter, Tamworth, Cannock, Nuneaton, Liverpool, Wakefield, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Perth and in central London.

Police separated rival groups in Bristol, with officers scuffling with protesters.

“Our officers have dealt admirably with a really challenging situation,” said Keith Smith, a senior officer with Avon and Somerset Police.

“While there were moments of disturbance, we’re pleased to say the two protests have passed without significant incident,” he added.

Eleven people were arrested for various offences including being drunk and disorderly, and assault in Liverpool.

The protests began outside a hotel in Epping, southeast England, after one resident was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
‘Complete chaos’

The policy of housing migrants in hotels was introduced by the last Conservative government, which was ousted in 2024 elections.

The latest official data showed that 32,345 asylum seekers were temporarily housed in UK hotels at the end of March.

The government is battling to reduce the backlog of initial asylum claims and court delays over appeals, which it says is the biggest cause of pressure in the asylum accommodation system.

A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the year to June 2025 -- the highest number ever.

There are currently 106,000 cases waiting to be heard, including at least 51,000 appeals. The average wait time for an appeal is 53 weeks.

The government said that “lessons are also being learned from other European countries”, including nations where appeals are decided by an independent panel rather than absorbed into the slow-moving main judiciary system.

“We inherited an asylum system in complete chaos with a soaring backlog of asylum cases and a broken appeals system,” said interior minister Yvette Cooper in a press release.

“We are determined to substantially reduce the number of people in the asylum system as part of our plan to end asylum hotels... we cannot carry on with these completely unacceptable delays in appeals,” she added.

The government is under pressure to find a solution, particularly from the hard-right Reform UK party, which is riding high in the polls.

Its leader Nigel Farage told The Times newspaper that he will conduct mass deportations and organise five removal flights a day if he became prime minister.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervises test of new antiair missiles.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test-firing of two types of new antiair missiles, state media said Sunday, displaying his expanding military capabilities as the South Korean and U.S. militaries carry out joint drills.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the test Saturday proved the missiles effective in countering aerial threats such as drones and cruise missiles, and that Kim assigned unspecified “important” tasks to defense scientists ahead of a major political conference expected early next year.

The report did not specify the missiles that were tested or where the event took place. It did not mention any remarks by Kim directed at Washington or Seoul.

The test coincided with new South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ’s trip to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, where they vowed to strengthen bilateral cooperation and their trilateral partnership with the United States to address common challenges, including North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Lee was to depart for Washington on Sunday for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kim’s government has repeatedly dismissed calls by Seoul and Washington to restart long-stalled negotiations aimed at winding down his nuclear weapons and missiles programs, as he continues to prioritize Russia as part of a foreign policy aimed at expanding ties with nations confronting the United States.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kim has sent thousands of troops and large shipments of weapons, including artillery and ballistic missiles, to help fuel President Vladimir Putin’s warfighting.

That has raised concerns Moscow could provide technology that strengthens Kim’s nuclear-armed military, with experts pointing to North Korea’s aging antiair and radar systems as a likely area of cooperation.

South Korea’s previous conservative government said in November that Russia supplied missiles and other equipment to help strengthen air defenses of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, but did not specify which systems were provided.

Kim held a ceremony in Pyongyang last week to honor North Korean soldiers who fought in Ukraine, awarding state “hero” titles to those who returned and placing medals beside 101 portraits of the fallen, praising them as “great men, great heroes and great patriots,” state media reported.

According to South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since last fall and about 600 of them have died in combat.

Kim has also agreed to send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to #Russia’s Kursk region, a deployment South #Korean intelligence believes could happen soon.

Kim Tong-hyung, The Associated Press

Pope affirms right of people to return home after unjust exile in meeting with Chagos #refugees.


#ROME — Pope Leo XIV strongly affirmed the right of people to return to their homes after an unjust exile, issuing the message during an audience Saturday with refugees from Chagos, the Indian Ocean archipelago that is home to the strategic U.S.-U.K. military base.

“No one can force them into exile,” history’s first American pope said.

Leo met with a delegation of about 15 refugees from Chagos, some 2,000 of whom who were evicted from their homes by Britain in the 1960s and 1970s so the United States could build a naval and bomber base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia.

Displaced islanders fought for years in U.K. courts for the right to go home. In May, Britain and Mauritius signed a treaty to hand sovereignty over the islands to Mauritius that allows resettlement, while still ensuring the future of the base.
‘A grave injustice’

Leo told the refugees he was “delighted” the treaty had been reached, saying it represented a “significant victory” in their long battle to “repair a grave injustice. He praised in particular the role of the Chagossian women in peacefully asserting their rights to go home.

“The renewed prospect of your return to your native archipelago is an encouraging sign and a powerful symbol on the international stage,” Leo said in French. ”All peoples, even the smallest and weakest, must be respected by the powerful in their identity and rights, in particular the right to live on their land; and no one can force them into exile.”

Leo said he hoped that Mauritian authorities will commit to ensuring their return, and pledged the help of the local Catholic Church.

One of the last remnants of the British Empire, the Chagos Islands have been under U.K. control since 1814. Britain split the islands away from Mauritius, a former British colony, in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence.

Under the May agreement, the U.K. will pay Mauritius an average of 101 million pounds (US$136 million) a year to lease back the base for at least 99 years. It establishes a trust fund to benefit the Chagossians and says “Mauritius is free to implement a program of resettlement” on the islands other than Diego Garcia.

However, the deal does not require the residents to be resettled, and some displaced islanders fear it will be even harder to return to their place of birth after Mauritius takes control.
Plans to go home

Philippe Sands, the international lawyer who represented Mauritius in the dispute and long championed the Chagossians’ right to go home, said the pope’s words were enormously important. He noted the intimate private audience, originally expected to be part of a general audience, was apparently instigated by Leo himself.

“The words spoken by His Holiness offered clear support for the urgent return of Chagossians to the islands from which they were deported and sent the clearest possible signal to the governments of Britain, United States and Mauritius that the Vatican expects the Chagossians to be able to return and remake their lives,” he told The Associated Press after the audience.

Louis Olivier Bancoult, the head of the Chagossian delegation who has fought for more than four decades for the right to go home, said the meeting had come together very much at the last minute thanks to the bishop in Port Louis, Mauritius.

Speaking to the AP at a cafe near the Vatican, he marveled that ever since the treaty had been signed, he had met for the first time with officials from the U.S. Embassy in Port Louis. He also received representatives of the British high commission in the capital.

“For me its a miracle,” he said. “After the U.S., the U.K. and now the pope. Who will be next?”

Preparations, including the building of infrastructure on the islands, now must begin to allow the forcibly deported Chagossians, like himself, to go home.

Bancoult was four when his family was forcibly evicted from their home on the island of Peros Banhos, with the British designating him a “contract laborer” with no right of permanent residence, Sands said.

“Now we have the blessing of God,” Bancoult said, displaying a statute of the Madonna that he brought to Leo to be blessed and will be taken to Chagos.

Pope Francis visited Mauritius in 2019 and met briefly with a group of Chagossians during a general audience at the #Vatican in 2023. Francis told reporters en route home from Mauritius in 2019 that Britain should obey the United Nations and return the islands to Mauritius.

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press

A growing number of phones, computers and other devices are being searched by American customs officials this year, in a trend that the U.S. government says only affects a small fraction of travellers.

The latest data show that between April and July 2025, officers working for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (#CBP) conducted searches of 14,899 electronic devices, including 1,075 “advanced” searches.

That total is higher than in any single quarter in the available data since late 2018, and nearly double the 8,000 searches conducted during the same time in that fiscal year, CBP data show.

The agency’s website describes device searches as “rare,” impacting just 0.01 per cent of the more than 400 million passengers who arrived at ports of entry last fiscal year. Non-U.S. citizens made up roughly 78 per cent of those subjected to device searches during that time.

“Despite the fact that all merchandise and persons crossing the border, both inbound and outbound, are subject to inspection by CBP, the number of travelers crossing the border whose electronic devices are actually searched is small,” it reads.
‘Judiciously and responsibly’

Searches typically involve an officer manually perusing the contents of a device, not including any information that is stored remotely. Mobile data, WiFi and other connections are disabled before a search begins, CBP notes.

In cases where there is “reasonable suspicion of a violation of law … or a national security concern,” border agents may conduct an advanced search, which uses external equipment to “review, copy, and/or analyze” a device’s contents.

In the past two fiscal years, between nine and 10 per cent of all searches have been advanced, on average.

CBP says that all travellers are obligated to “present their electronic devices and the information resident on the device in a condition that allows for the examination,” if asked. Failure to comply, such as by withholding a passcode or fingerprint, does not automatically disqualify a foreign national from entry to the United States, though the agency says the device may be taken into custody anyway, and noncompliance may factor into the final decision to allow or deny entry.

“CBP has established strict guidelines, above and beyond prevailing legal requirements, to ensure that these searches are exercised judiciously and responsibly and are consistent with the public trust,” its FAQ reads. “Admissibility determinations are made based on the totality of the circumstances.”
Traveller concerns

Phone searches and other additional screening at U.S. borders have sparked concerns in recent months amid the Trump administration’s renewed scrutiny on immigration.

In April, Canada updated its travel advisory for the United States, warning that visitors should “expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices.”

“Comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities,” the advisory reads. “If you are denied entry, you could be detained while awaiting deportation.”

According to CBP, searching devices helps to uncover a variety of criminal activity, including terrorism, child exploitation, human and drug trafficking, smuggling and illegal immigration, as well as “additional information relevant to admissibility of foreign nationals under U.S. immigration laws.”

But some have raised fears that criminality isn’t the only factor to cause issues at the border.

In March, a French scientist on his way to Houston was turned away following a search of his smartphone and laptop. The issue, according to one French cabinet minister, arose out of messages found on the phone that referenced “his political opinion on the policies of the Trump administration.”

In an interview with CTV News earlier this year, Vancouver immigration lawyer Cindy Switzer warned of the power that border agents wield.

“The issue is that border officers have full discretion in order to grant somebody admission,” she said. “They can deny somebody admission for any reason.”

With flies from CTV News Vancouver’s Ben Miljure and AFP

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics-fy2023

Electronic device searches by U.S. border officials are on the rise, data shows.

‘Judiciously and responsibly’

Searches typically involve an officer manually perusing the contents of a device, not including any information that is stored remotely. Mobile data, WiFi and other connections are disabled before a search begins, CBP notes.

In cases where there is “reasonable suspicion of a violation of law … or a national security concern,” border agents may conduct an advanced search, which uses external equipment to “review, copy, and/or analyze” a device’s contents.

In the past two fiscal years, between nine and 10 per cent of all searches have been advanced, on average.

CBP says that all travellers are obligated to “present their electronic devices and the information resident on the device in a condition that allows for the examination,” if asked. Failure to comply, such as by withholding a passcode or fingerprint, does not automatically disqualify a foreign national from entry to the United States, though the agency says the device may be taken into custody anyway, and noncompliance may factor into the final decision to allow or deny entry.

“CBP has established strict guidelines, above and beyond prevailing legal requirements, to ensure that these searches are exercised judiciously and responsibly and are consistent with the public trust,” its FAQ reads. “Admissibility determinations are made based on the totality of the circumstances.”
Traveller concerns

Phone searches and other additional screening at U.S. borders have sparked concerns in recent months amid the Trump administration’s renewed scrutiny on immigration.

In April, Canada updated its travel advisory for the United States, warning that visitors should “expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices.”

“Comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities,” the advisory reads. “If you are denied entry, you could be detained while awaiting deportation.”

According to CBP, searching devices helps to uncover a variety of criminal activity, including terrorism, child exploitation, human and drug trafficking, smuggling and illegal immigration, as well as “additional information relevant to admissibility of foreign nationals under U.S. immigration laws.”

But some have raised fears that criminality isn’t the only factor to cause issues at the border.

In March, a French scientist on his way to Houston was turned away following a search of his smartphone and laptop. The issue, according to one French cabinet minister, arose out of messages found on the phone that referenced “his political opinion on the policies of the Trump administration.”

In an interview with CTV News earlier this year, Vancouver immigration lawyer Cindy Switzer warned of the power that border agents wield.

“The issue is that border officers have full discretion in order to grant somebody admission,” she said. “They can deny somebody admission for any reason.”

With flies from CTV News Vancouver’s Ben Miljure and AFP

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics-fy2023

North Korea accuses South of ‘serious provocation’ over border warning shots. Ko Jong Chol, vice chief of the North Korean People’s Army’s General Staff, noted that Tuesday’s warning shots coincided with the South Korea-U.S. summertime military drills and accused Seoul of deliberately trying to raise tensions.

Shortly after Ko’s statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed it had fired warning shots Tuesday afternoon at North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the military demarcation line in the central border region while carrying out unspecified construction work. The South’s military said the soldiers returned to North Korean territory without incident and that the North didn’t return fire.

In recent months, South Korea’s military has occasionally used loudspeaker warnings and fired warning shots to repel North Korean soldiers crossing the military demarcation line. The incidents were largely seen as accidental as North Korean troops build anti-tank barriers, plant mines and carry out other work to reinforce border defenses amid heightened tensions.

Ko said the North Korean soldiers were conducting a “barrier project to permanently block the southern border,” as part of broader efforts of “completely separating” the territory between the Koreas, when the South responded with an audio warning and warning shots. Ko said the North had informed U.S. forces in the South of their plans for the border work on June 25 and July 18 to prevent accidental clashes.

“As the commanding officer responsible for the southern border management and security, I strongly demand (the South) to immediately stop the dangerous provocation aimed to make the fortification project in the southern border necessary for defending our sovereignty an excuse for escalation of tension,” Ko said in a statement.

Animosity between the Koreas is running high now as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his military nuclear capabilities and align with Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Citing the expansion of South Korea-U.S. military exercises and the hard-line policies of Seoul’s previous conservative government, Kim last year declared that North Korea was abandoning its long-standing goals of a peaceful unification between the Koreas and ordered the rewriting of the North’s constitution to mark the South as a permanent enemy.

Kim’s government has so far dismissed the diplomatic overtures by Seoul’s new liberal president, Lee Jae Myung, who said last week that Seoul would seek to restore a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement aimed at reducing border tensions, while urging Pyongyang to reciprocate by rebuilding trust and resuming dialogue.

Kim Tong-hyung, The Associated Press

Air defenses destroyed 10 Ukrainian drones in the skies over three Russian regions on Friday evening, Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"Between 8:50 p.m. #Moscow time (GMT +3) and midnight on August 22, air defenses on duty destroyed 10 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, four each over the Rostov and Krasnodar regions, and two over the Belgorod Region," the statement reads.

#UNSC to hold emergency meeting on Nord Streams on August 26 at Russia’s request — envoy.

Russia will be drawing attention to how the German investigation is being delayed and how non-transparent it has been for the Security Council, Dmitry Polyansky emphasized.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will hold an emergency meeting on the sabotage on the Nord Streams gas pipelines next Tuesday at Russia’s request, Dmitry Polyansky, the country’s Acting Permanent Representative to the global body, announced.

"Amid reports about the arrest of a suspect in organizing terror attacks on the Nord Streams in September 2022, Russia has requested an emergency UNSC meeting. We will be drawing attention to how the German investigation is being delayed and how non-transparent it has been for the Security Council. Panama which holds the [rotating] presidency of the [UN] SC [this month] has scheduled it for 4:00 p.m. New York time (8:00 p.m. GMT) on August 26," the Russian diplomat wrote on his Telegram channel.

On Thursday, a 49-year-old Ukrainian man, Sergey Kusnetsov, was arrested in Italy on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued in Germany. He is suspected of complicity in organizing the attack on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in September 2022. German prosecutors alleged that he was part of a group that planted explosives on the gas pipelines near Bornholm as they consider him to be one of the coordinators of the attack.

The detainee rejected a proposal for voluntary extradition to Germany. He claimed that he was in Ukraine at the moment the Nord Streams were blown up. He may face up to 15 years behind bars in Germany where he should stand trial.

On September 26, 2022, three strings of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines sustained enormous damage. The latter had not yet been put into operation. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Moscow is certain that the Nord Stream sabotage was carried out with US support. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has opened an investigation into an act of international terrorism.

What is a famine and who declares one?

Famine is now occurring in Gaza City, according to the world’s leading authority on food crises.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification released an analysis Friday, saying more than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, suffering widespread starvation and preventable deaths.

It’s the first time the IPC has confirmed a famine in the Middle East, where Israel has been in a brutal war with Hamas since the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

People in Gaza rely almost entirely on outside aid to survive because Israel’s military offensive has wiped out most capacity to produce food inside the territory.

“I am speechless that in 2025, we are facing starvation on the planet,” said Dr. Mark Manary at Washington University in St. Louis, an expert on childhood malnutrition. “It’s got to be a wake-up call.”

Manary said if food were made widely available, it would take around two or three months for the region to recover from the famine.

Here’s a look at what famine means and how the world finds out when one exists.
What is famine?

“Famine is, in plain language, not having enough to eat,” Manary said.

IPC, the leading international authority on hunger crises, considers an area to be in famine when three things occur: 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or essentially are starving; at least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height; and two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying daily of hunger and its complications.

Famine can appear in pockets — sometimes small ones — and a formal classification requires caution.

Last year, experts said a famine was ongoing in parts of North Darfur in Sudan. Somalia, in 2011, and South Sudan, in 2017, also saw famines in which tens of thousands of people were affected.
Who declares a famine?

The short answer is, there’s no set rule.

While the IPC says it is the “primary mechanism” used by the international community to analyze data and conclude whether a famine is happening or projected, it typically doesn’t make such a declaration itself.

Often, UN officials or governments will make a formal statement, based on an analysis from the IPC.

In Gaza, the World Health Organization said malnutrition among children “is accelerating at a catastrophic pace,” with more than 12,000 children identified as acutely malnourished in July alone. That’s the highest monthly figure ever recorded.
What happens to people trapped in a famine?

When people don’t have enough to eat, Manary said, the first thing that happens is the body uses up its reserves.

“So we have about three days’ worth of carbohydrates ... and sometimes even months’ worth of fat that we can keep in our body in storage,” he said. “These are used up. And then the body still needs to keep working. So it starts breaking down less essential parts of the body. So you see, like, people become very thin.”

In a sense, he said, people’s muscles are being eaten by their own bodies to keep them going.

“The body is eating all of itself up in order to try to survive,” he said.

At some point, he said, that process breaks down and a stressor like an infection can kill the person.
How do starving people recover?

If they start eating, Manary said, their risk of dying drops quite a bit in just a week. But it sometimes takes a couple of months for someone to recover completely.

When a famine is declared, governments and the international aid community, including the UN, can potentially unlock aid and funding to help feed people en masse.

Because this famine is human-caused, “it can be halted and reversed,” the IPC report said. “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading.”

___

Laura Ungar And Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

IN BRIEF: What is known about overnight #Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian regions
Nineteen drones were downed over the Bryansk Region, eleven over the Volgograd Region, eight over the Rostov Region, seven over the Voronezh Region, three each over the Belgorod and Oryol Regions, two UAVs over the Kursk Region, and one over the Republic of Crimea.

Air defense forces shot down and intercepted 54 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over Russian regions overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry repelled a massive drone attack on the Volgograd Region, Governor Andrey Bocharov stated. Localized fires broke out at the sites where the debris fell.

TASS has compiled the main facts about the drone attack.
Attack on Russian regions

· Throughout the night, from 11 p.m. Moscow Time on August 21 to 7 a.m. Moscow Time on August 22, air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 54 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, the Defense Ministry reported.

· Nineteen drones were downed over the Bryansk Region, eleven over the Volgograd Region, eight over the Rostov Region, seven over the Voronezh Region, three each over the Belgorod and Oryol Regions, two UAVs over the Kursk Region, and one over the Republic of Crimea.
Aftermath of the attacks

· The Russian Defense Ministry repelled a massive drone strike on the Volgograd Region, Bocharov reported.

· Due to the falling debris of unmanned aerial vehicles in the southern part of the city, in the area of Udmurtskaya and Jack London Streets, localized fires of dry vegetation broke out, Bocharov specified.

· Air defense forces also repelled a drone attack in the Millerovsky, Tarasovsky, and Kamensky districts of the Rostov Region, Acting Governor Yuri Slyusar, reported.

· Grass ignited in several locations where debris fell in the Rostov Region; the fires were promptly extinguished.

· According to preliminary data, there were no casualties in the #Volgograd and Rostov Regions.

· Restrictions on airport operations were introduced in Volgograd, Saratov, Samara, and Kaluga. They have since been lifted.